Cornerstone Sonoma is a wine country marketplace featuring a world-class shopping, boutique wineries and tasting rooms, artisanal foods, art-inspired gardens, and is home to Sunset’s Gardens + Outdoor Test Kitchen. Located at the gateway of Sonoma and Napa County in California’s beautiful Wine Country, Cornerstone is a premiere destination to shop, sip, eat, play and explore.

A major attraction for visitors are the Cornerstone Gardens–an ever-changing series of gardens, showcasing innovative designs from international and local landscape architects and designers. In an effort to enhance the experience for garden visitors, Cornerstone Sonoma has released a mobile app that provides multiple in-depth tours. Featuring an audio guide, images, and many interactive options, this app was designed to complement an onsite visit with both educational and visitor information, such as a guide to the unique shops and galleries.

Along with the narrative, videos, and images, which were produced in-house, the app also includes an interactive map that allows visitors to chose a specific location and stop number. The app provides provides a self-guided tour option, giving visitors the flexibility to explore the area at their own pace with their personal devices.

Cornerstone Sonoma used OnCell’s app building service, QuickStart, to create the app.

Q&A with Susan Shore, Heritage Tourism Program Specialist at the Texas Historical Commission

Texas Time Travel Tours, the mobile app created by the Texas Historical Commission, is a true portrait of Texas. The app features over 550 sites, 170 of which are highlighted with audio and video. Currently there are seven statewide tours in the app and one site-specific tour for THC historic property Fulton Mansion. Points of interest cover the entire state, from Amarillo to Brownsville, to Texarkana to El Paso. The primary goal for the app is to inspire people to travel Texas and specifically historic sites, whether that is a historic fort or a downtown district.

Q. Why did the Texas Historical Commission decide to create an app?

A. Our team had been considering the development of a mobile app for some time. We traditionally have created travel guides in a print format, but not only is it quite expensive, it limits the content we can include. In addition to broadening our user demographic by introducing Texas history on a mobile device, we also wanted to broaden our storytelling capacity to drive visitation to communities across the state. The THC’s motto is “real places telling real stories”—what better way than to encourage travel to those places?

Q. What are the benefits for visitors to use the app?

A. Accessing the stories of Texas using the app allows the user to have information at the ready on their personal device, whether they are traveling to a location or simply viewing from the comfort of home. Once the full native app format is complete with individual tour download capability, users will have more complete access to points of interest in areas of the state that are quite remote and have limited cell/wifi connectivity.

As mentioned earlier, the app allows for rich visual storytelling with the inclusion of image galleries and video, something not possible using print formats.

We have lots of stories to tell! The app’s capacity to house multiple tours gives users access to all of it with just a click or a swipe. Users can also quickly know what places are close to them by using the Nearby map that shows points of interest for all tours.

Q. How did the THC team go about planning such a large project?

A. Planning began about a year before the initial RFP was issued. We researched other apps for excellence in both storytelling and user experience, and developed a strong vision for our end product. While we had a long list of functions we would like to have in the app, we also realized that the costs of having a platform custom developed for our project probably didn’t meet the long term ROI. We found that already established platforms like the one offered by OnCell could meet our needs with some customization.

Q. Can you tell us a little about how the content was created for the tours?

A. Most of the initial tours built upon existing agency print guides or guides under development. These guides served as the foundational material to help define the scope of each tour. We established small groups of subject matter experts and advisory stakeholders to work with the staff development team. We contracted external vendors for scriptwriting and video production services.

Q. Can you tell us about your marketing strategy for the app?

A. Much of our publicity is tied to the THC’s social media channels–Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blog posts. Videos from all of the tours are included on our YouTube channel and descriptively tied to the app. This also makes it easier to embed in posts on other channels like Facebook. We experience very high engagement on Facebook when video stories are included in posts about the different tours on the app.

Launches for individual tours are tied to related external events when practical. For example, La Salle Odyssey launch corresponded to the opening of a new permanent installation of the reconstructed ship, La Belle, in a major museum. Hispanic Texas launched during National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Each tour provides many storytelling opportunities, and will make it easy for us to continue promotions throughout the year with little or no content repetition. All of these contain language that directs user to the full app experience.

Q. What advice would you give to other organizations who are looking to create an app?

A. Do your research and ask questions for both platform selection and content development. Keep your audience top-of-mind and be consistent in the style and quality of all elements of the project.

Texas Time Travel Tours features an immersive blend of interpretive audio with first person interviews, video, and image galleries that allows users to experience the real places and real stories of Texas. GPS features allow visitors to locate nearby points of interest and offers people an easy way to share content with social media. Explore the rich heritage of Texas by downloading the app, available for iOS in the App Store and Android in Google Play. Access the web app on any web-enabled device at http://texastimetravel.toursphere.com

Self-Guided Tour Offers Visitors Detailed Interpretation of New Orleans History

In an effort to tell the story of Louisiana and its contribution to the growth and culture of our nation, The Historic New Orleans Collection has released a mobile web app that provides an in-depth understanding of objects found within their permanent collection. The app takes the users on a tour of The Louisiana History Galleries, found within the Merieult House, which serves as the main museum facility for the organization.

“New Orleans is approaching its 200th anniversary. Showcased by narrators in the app’s videos, individual objects exemplify a broader context of this history,” says Steve Sweet, Manager of Internet and Interactive Development at The Historic New Orleans Collection. “A visitor in the gallery viewing these objects wouldn’t necessarily comprehend these connections without taking the tour.”

Along with the narrative, the videos, which were produced in-house, also include additional objects from the collection that are not on view, further illustrating Louisiana’s story. The interpretation is similar to that of traditional docent led tours, but offers visitors the flexibility to explore the museum at their own pace with their personal devices.

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